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Title details for One Woman Show by Christine Coulson - Available

One Woman Show

by Christine Coulson
Christine Coulson
Audiobook
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A "modern masterwork" (NPR)—remarkably told through museum wall labels—about a 20th-century woman who transforms herself from a precious object into an unforgettable protagonist.
Author Christine Coulson spent twenty-five years writing for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her final project was to write wall labels for the museum's new British Galleries. During that time, she dreamt of using The Met's strict label format to describe people as intricate works of art. The result is this "jewel box of a novel" (Kirkus Reviews) that imagines a privileged 20th-century woman as an artifact—an object prized, collected, and critiqued. One Woman Show revolves around the life of Kitty Whitaker as she is defined by her potential for display and moved from collection to collection through multiple marriages. Coulson precisely distills each stage of this sprawling life, every brief snapshot in time a wry reflection on womanhood, ownership, value, and power.

"A moving story of privilege, womanhood, and the sweep of the 20th century told through a single American life" (Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind), Kitty is an eccentric heroine who disrupts her porcelain life with both major force and minor transgressions. Described with poignancy and humor, Coulson's playful reversal on our interaction with art ultimately questions who really gets to tell our stories.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 17, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797166032
      • File size: 40547 KB
      • Duration: 01:24:28

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 14, 2023
      Coulson’s innovative yet disappointing sophomore outing (after Metropolitan Stories) is an experiment in structure that details the life of an American socialite through museum wall labels. Born in 1906, Kitty Whitaker is “all fireworks, golden child.” The novel’s first label belongs to a portrait of Kitty at age five and describes her as a “delirious display of Bernini verve and unrivaled WASP artistry.” In subsequent portrait captions, Kitty is depicted as confident, a little cruel, and ready to take her place as the “centerpiece of a dynastic collection” through her 1926 marriage to the heir of a Pittsburgh mining fortune. Though her wedding initially seems to be the first of many triumphs, Kitty’s life takes an unexpected turn when she’s unable to bear a child and her husband dies in WWII. In the following decades, she remarries, seduces a stepson, and, at age 69, even applies for a job as a docent at the Metropolitan Museum. The prose is often witty and dynamic, but the constrained format limits the story rather than adding to it, and the mildly feminist arc of Kitty’s self-realization feels predictable. Despite its novel structure, this turns out to be an unsatisfying showcase. Agent: Elizabeth Weed, Book Group.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In this short, witty audiobook, author Christine Coulson briskly delivers the text of various museum wall labels that tell the long life story of Caroline Margaret Brooks Whitaker, known as Kitty, who is portrayed as a precious object to be admired--like a work of art. As Kitty's "provenance" grows through multiple marriages and the labels become hilariously longer, Coulson maintains the seriousness of a museum docent. Narrators Chris Henry Coffey, Jackie Sanders, and Megan Tusing interrupt the tour with gossipy comments that point out Kitty's surface craquelure, unflattering chiaroscuro lighting, and significant need for restoration. Kitty is an eccentrically independent woman who strives to become a true masterpiece that can withstand the shallowness of upper-class art collectors. As tastes in art change, the exhibit closes, and her portrait goes into permanent storage. J.E.S. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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